26 October 2013

Brussels
-- A new report prepared by the Basel Action Network (BAN) refutes the European
Commission’s claim that there is insufficient ship recycling capacity in
developed countries. The new report identifies significant clean and safe ship
recycling capacity in North America, Europe and Turkey that can ensure that all
EU-flagged end-of-life ships sent for breaking each year can be accommodated in
member states of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) facilities. This is vital to ensure that Europe upholds its long
established principles and legal obligations under the Basel Convention which
has banned all exports of hazardous wastes from developed to developing
(non-OECD) countries.

“The European Commission claims
that they must send toxic ships to developing countries, even though it is
forbidden under the Basel Convention, because there is not enough ship
recycling capacity in developed countries,” said Jim Puckett, Executive
Director of BAN. “Not only are there shipbuilding yards in Europe which can be
considered as dormant capacity, ready to be awakened to create jobs in Europe,
but if we look to North America to fill the current capacity shortage of the EU
and nearby Turkey, we have calculated that all EU-flagged ships can be recycled
at environmentally sound OECD facilities.”

The European Commission developed
the proposed ship recycling regulation on the basis that OECD ship recycling
capacity was insufficient to accommodate EU-flagged tonnage. However, they
failed to consider OECD capacity in North America, the largest ‘green’ ship
recycling market in the world, and that which currently operates significantly
below capacity.

“There is no good reason for
Europe to discard its long established principles which prevent the movement of
hazardous wastes to developing countries,” said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive
Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “All that is needed is the political
will by the European Parliament and Council to take responsiblity for our own
toxic waste-laden ships.”

Today, the vast majority of
European flagged or owned ships that reach the end of their service are sold to
shipbreaking facilities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where they are run
onto the beaches and dismantled in conditions harmful to human health and to
the environment. According to French NGO Robin des Bois, more than 200 EU ships
were sent to the beaches in 2011. By mid-October 2012, already 411
European-owned ships had been sent to the South Asian yards, which represents
41 percent of all end-of-life ships sold so far this year.